[Alhassan unloading compost delivered as usual by donkey to my driveway]
Short-termers Adrian and Sue came and helped out at IMS for a few weeks and remarked one day in the car while snapping away, that they were told to take photos in the first week while they still ‘noticed’ things as different.
Things I don’t notice (consciously) anymore:
The line after line of silhouettes of vultures perched in pairs on both arms of the streetlamps along the middle of the median strip of the Route Circulaire.
The ‘green ladies’ underneath them in peak hour traffic, bent over seemingly oblivious to the cars swerving within feet of them sweeping the road every second day with short straw bundles (the day after the road was flooded last week I did notice the huge amount of dirt and debris and pitied them their job that day!).
The corn, almost ripe in the tiny field planted in the road (turnoff to IMS).
Swerving from left to right to avoid the other obstructions in that same road: the hen and her 5 tiny bundles of fur racing from side to side, piles of firewood as big as a house, sand and rocks for a construction project alongside a wall, tables of small items for sale, the ram attached near the mosque for Friday, the bikes parked way out in the lane in front of the lady frying beanflour donut balls, the gully created in the intersection by water rushing downhill along the cross road ….
Overtaking heavily-laden donkey carts clopping along - but slowing down for the lone donkey directly in my path - ambling down the paved road on his way home without owner or cart was a little more unusual
Mud squelching under my toes as I get out of the car to open the gate of my driveway following the daily downpour, leaving shoes at the doorstep so mud doesn’t get tracked through the house.
The mouldy smell in the roads where puddles haven’t dried up for months, the back cement which has had a green tinge to it for weeks, the cloths under the window to catch the leak each downpour…
